history

SOOKE HISTORY: Alleged bootlegger has day in court

SOOKE HISTORY: Alleged bootlegger has day in court

Blackberry wine confiscated at home

  • Sep 28, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Alleged bootlegger has day in court
SOOKE HISTORY: A community hall wedding

SOOKE HISTORY: A community hall wedding

Sooke Community Hall the scene of many weddings and showers

  • Sep 20, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: A community hall wedding
SOOKE HISTORY: Throup-McMillan family photo

SOOKE HISTORY: Throup-McMillan family photo

Aunt Carrie Throup ran the Throup Store

  • Sep 14, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Throup-McMillan family photo
25 years later: The water skiing legend on Kalamalka Lake

25 years later: The water skiing legend on Kalamalka Lake

A group of waterskiers were towed behind a plane on Kalamalka Lake back in 1995

25 years later: The water skiing legend on Kalamalka Lake
The Sooke Knox Presbyterian Church Choir in 1962. (Sooke Region Museum photo)

SOOKE HISTORY: Social activities once centred around Presbyterian church choir

The original Knox Presbyterian was the first church built in Sooke

  • Aug 31, 2020
The Sooke Knox Presbyterian Church Choir in 1962. (Sooke Region Museum photo)
The Massacre at Whiffin Spit depicted by artist Willow Planes Dodge in the book The Sooke Story. (Sooke Region Museum).

SOOKE HISTORY: Whiffin Spit’s many lives

First Nation elder recalls Massacre of Whiffin Spit

  • Aug 24, 2020
The Massacre at Whiffin Spit depicted by artist Willow Planes Dodge in the book The Sooke Story. (Sooke Region Museum).
SOOKE HISTORY: Community celebrates 1953 girls softball champions

SOOKE HISTORY: Community celebrates 1953 girls softball champions

Elida Peers | Contributed Recently I mentioned in a column that Sooke…

  • Jul 28, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Community celebrates 1953 girls softball champions
A view across Victoria’s harbour is split by more than 100 years on the OnThisSpot app. The app gives users the historical knowledge and imagery they need to be transported back in time. (Victoria Archives AC1-M06964 & On This Spot Enterprises)

History app uses ‘then and now’ photographs of Victoria

OnThisSpot provides historical insight of Canadian cities

A view across Victoria’s harbour is split by more than 100 years on the OnThisSpot app. The app gives users the historical knowledge and imagery they need to be transported back in time. (Victoria Archives AC1-M06964 & On This Spot Enterprises)
SOOKE HISTORY: Building the Sooke Community Hall

SOOKE HISTORY: Building the Sooke Community Hall

Over the years, the hall has hosted many events

  • Jul 13, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Building the Sooke Community Hall
Mohawk Council of Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon discusses the current situation and actions relating to the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs during a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

30 years after Oka crisis, Kanesatake land claims remain unresolved

Serge Simon, the current Grand Chief of Kanesatake, vividly remembers the events of July 11, 1990

Mohawk Council of Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Otsi Simon discusses the current situation and actions relating to the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs during a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The Sooke Region Museum will reopen to the public Monday, June 22. (Black Press Media file photo)

Sooke Region Museum reopens to visitors

Museum only to allow 15 people inside at a time

The Sooke Region Museum will reopen to the public Monday, June 22. (Black Press Media file photo)
An image from the Royal BC Museum’s digitized collection of historical photographs shows an Interior Salish woman and child weaving baskets. The image is one of thousands posted in an online database. (Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum)

Victoria museum releases more than 16,000 historical images of Indigenous life

Digitized images preserved and shared with Indigenous communities

An image from the Royal BC Museum’s digitized collection of historical photographs shows an Interior Salish woman and child weaving baskets. The image is one of thousands posted in an online database. (Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum)
SOOKE HISTORY: Grandma Sue’s book launch

SOOKE HISTORY: Grandma Sue’s book launch

‘The woman we called Grandma Sue was a treasure to us all’

  • Jun 8, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Grandma Sue’s book launch
A screenshot from the 1926 footage of the North Island. (Youtube screenshot)

VIDEO: Film historian finds rare footage from 1926, showcasing remote Northern Vancouver Island life

‘This photographer clearly knew what he was doing, suggesting he was taught’

A screenshot from the 1926 footage of the North Island. (Youtube screenshot)
Vehicles parade through Cloverdale in 1946. The actual parade is unknown as there were six in Cloverdale that year – May Day, the Rodeo, the Kinsmen’s Gymkhana (June 29th), the Fall Fair, August Memorial Service, and the Wild West Show. (Image courtesy of Surrey Historical Society)

BCHF conference once again slated for Cloverdale

Surrey Historical Society to host 2021 history conference

Vehicles parade through Cloverdale in 1946. The actual parade is unknown as there were six in Cloverdale that year – May Day, the Rodeo, the Kinsmen’s Gymkhana (June 29th), the Fall Fair, August Memorial Service, and the Wild West Show. (Image courtesy of Surrey Historical Society)
Some youth are choosing to draw their thoughts on their pandemic postcards. People who don’t want to download a postcard can also e-mail their thoughts to Literacy Alberni and they will be printed on a card for the project. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Vancouver Island pandemic postcard project asks people to share COVID-19 experiences

Postcards will be donated to museum for posterity

Some youth are choosing to draw their thoughts on their pandemic postcards. People who don’t want to download a postcard can also e-mail their thoughts to Literacy Alberni and they will be printed on a card for the project. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
This scene shows one of the state rooms in the Spanish Embassy at The Hague, in the Netherlands, as Sooke’s Susan McLean presented the image of Sooke volunteers posed at Whiffin Spit’s Quimper Park, to Spanish Ambassador Antonio Jose Fournier. (Sooke Region Museum)

SOOKE HISTORY: A gift to Spain

Spanish ambassador Antonio Jose Fournier played key role in bicentennial celebrations

  • Apr 19, 2020
This scene shows one of the state rooms in the Spanish Embassy at The Hague, in the Netherlands, as Sooke’s Susan McLean presented the image of Sooke volunteers posed at Whiffin Spit’s Quimper Park, to Spanish Ambassador Antonio Jose Fournier. (Sooke Region Museum)
The corner of Highway 14 and Phillips Road looked like this in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Courtesy Elida Peers/Sooke Region Museum)

SOOKE HISTORY: Phillips at Highway 14 before it was home to Sooke’s third traffic light

Elida Peers is a historian with Sooke Region Museum

  • Apr 5, 2020
The corner of Highway 14 and Phillips Road looked like this in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Courtesy Elida Peers/Sooke Region Museum)
Fanny Rodgers shows a 45-year-old message left in the walls of her Castlegar home. Photo: John Boivin

Hidden message connects Castlegar homeowners decades apart

The Rodgers family was surprised when a message fell out of the walls as they were renovating

Fanny Rodgers shows a 45-year-old message left in the walls of her Castlegar home. Photo: John Boivin
SOOKE HISTORY: Remembering Louise Paterson

SOOKE HISTORY: Remembering Louise Paterson

Elida Peers | Contributed Part proud Haida descent, part dedicated environmentalist, part…

  • Feb 25, 2020
SOOKE HISTORY: Remembering Louise Paterson